Thailand Adventures, Pt. III

continued from part II…

March 19, Krabi: We landed in Krabi and got in yet

On the way to Railay!

another taxi-van to the shore. See, we were staying on west Railay beach and the only way you can get to it is via boat. Railay isn’t an island, it’s more like a peninsula but I think it takes too long to get to overland or maybe it’s just not navigable. The terrain is rather mountainous, hence the area is popular for the rock climbing offered. So we get on a long boat and enjoy a nice ride over to Railay. It’s worth mentioning that on the whole trip we only met a few Americans other than ourselves and the other folks from school who were traveling Thailand. Most of the non-Thai folks were from Germany, Austrailia, the UK and France. We did meet this one American dude who had quit his job and was backpacking southeast Asia, a popular thing to do I guess. We saw him in Samui and he was headed to Railay for rockclimbing. His name was Matt and he shared a cab and the longboat with us.

Anyway we first got to Railay on the east side which, according to the

Our hotel pool & Railay West beach

guidebooks and our own eyes, isn’t as pretty as the west side. Luckily, you can walk from one to the other with no problem. We arrived on the west side at a really nice resort, Railay Bay. Once again, soon after arriving we headed out to the beach, setting up chairs near the pool facing the horizon. If you ever go to Thailand, make it your business to visit Railay West. From there you have access to Krabi, a nice little beachside town and two cool beaches.

We spent the remainder of our trip pretty much exploring the Krabi-Railay area. Three of us spent a morning at Ya’s Cooking School, where a lovely Thai woman named Ya (duh) taught us how to cook DELISH Thai cuisine. Curries, soups, salads, pad thai, stir fry, yumm!

Yummy food WE made!

I can’t wait to get back and host a Thai feast for some of my friends. Other activities included snorkeling, a speed boat trip to Ko Phi Phi (where they filmed the movie The Beach), elephant trekking and a bamboo tattoo. Yep, I got a souvenir that’ll last forever, a tattoo. It was cool because it was done with a stick of bamboo that the dude carved in front of me, some olive oil and dye. It’s been 10 years since my first tattoo and now I think I’m back on the tat wagon. I want like 3 more!

March 24, Return: On our last day in Thailand, we flew from Krabi back to Bangkok where we split up again. Two of us spent the day shopping and went to see a movie. Yeah, I saw The Watchmen in an IMAX theater in a bourgie Bangkok mall (Siam Paragon, whatup!). The crew met up again for an overnight flight back to Tokyo.

We'll miss you Thailand!